Shincal de Quimivil, or simply El Shincal, is the ruin of a pre-Columbian Inca city located near the town of Londres, Belén Department, in the Catamarca Province. Argentina. The Inca settlement covering an area of about , had a or main square, five kallankas (halls) a long (partly) underground aqueduct to provide fresh water, and about twenty colcas (warehouses). The Qhapaq ñan, in its main mountain trunk, crosses the settlement North to South, on the west side of the plaza. The urban layout of the road inside El Shincal is completed with a scenic architectural component: two twin hills about high are located on both sides of the plaza, their tops were artificially flattened and walled with stones to a height of about . Both hills can be accessed through stone steps.Raffino, Rodolfo; et al. (1997). El ushnu de El Shincal de Quimivil - Tawantinsuyu, 3:22-39
The site was declared a National Historic Monument on November 5, 1997. The work carried out at the site has led to the recovery of its cultural, historical, and heritage value. Between 2013 and 2015, the re-valuation of El Shincal was completed, culminating in the inauguration of a new enhancement of the archaeological site.Raffino, Rodolfo (2015) Una capital inka al sur del Kollasuyu. El Shincal de Quimivil
Discovery The existence of the ruins was first reported in 1900, when the discoverer believed it to be the original site of the city of Londres, founded in 1558 by Juan Pérez de Zurita a Spanish conquistador. Shortly afterward, Adán Quiroga, a researcher of Catamarca's antiquities, submitted a report about his visit to these ruins, assuming that they were the ruins of a fortress. Later on, Carlos Bruch, a researcher from the La Plata Museum, visited the site in 1907/1908 without carrying on any excavations. used these unpublished information for a campaign he conducted in 1954, sponsored by the Argentine Society of Americanists. He excavated some of the main areas of the ruins and reported his findings in a paper published in 1966 by the Catamarca Historical Studies Board. from the early 1980s, studied the Inca cultural influence in the Catamarca region. His explorations at various sites allowed to set up, in 1992, a project to conduct a comprehensive study of the El Shincal ruins through systematic excavations and the restoration of its structures.Raffino, Rodolfo (2004). El Shincal de Quimivíl - Sarquís
Historical Context The Incas were a politically expansive society that throughout the 15th century exerted its influence and dominion over various populations of South America. This expansion was based on different social, economic, religious, and military interests which, combined with local realities, shaped varied social and cultural landscapes throughout the Tawantinsuyu (Inca Empire).Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, María (1999) - Historia del Tahuantinsuyu - Instituto de Estudios Peruanos. Lima The deployed political strategies were both coercive and diplomatic, varying according to the relationships established between local groups and the state interests.D'Altroy, Terence; William, Veronica (1998). El sur del Tawantinsuyu: un dominio selectivamente intensivo - Tawantinsuyu, 5
At its greatest extent, the Tawantinsuyu was divided into four provinces or "suyus." The Qullasuyu −the southernmost portion− included parts of Bolivia, Chile, and the northern Andean region of Argentina. One of the most emblematic sites in Argentine territory was El Shincal de Quimivil. At this Inca site, the urban planning, architecture, roads, and associated material records give evidence of an intense political activity that implied the control a vast territory. The evidence of material, archaeological, and historical importance of this site may indicate why the settlement of Londres, Catamarca, founded by Juan Pérez de Zurita in 1558t was, the second Spanish settlement in Argentine, was very close to El Shincal. Moralejo, Reinaldo (2016). El Shincal de Quimivil: un Nuevo Cusco al sur del Kollasuyu (Londres, Catamarca, Noroeste argentino) – Despertar (8)
Inca Geopolitics The state organization of Northwest Argentina within the Qullasuyu presented a defined geopolitical subdivision maintained by the Inca peace.González, Alberto Rex (1982). The Inca ‘provinces’ of Ancient Tucumán - Revista del Museo Nacional, XLVI The province was divided into different sub-provinces or s ruled by different curacas (local chiefs). El Shincal and Tolombón north of the Yocavil Valley, were the main political centers of the Quire-Quire wamani, comprising the southern end of the Calchaquí Valley and the valleys of Yocavil (or Santa María), Andalgalá, Hualfín and Abaucán, where a large number of mitimaes (forced workers) placed by the Incas were residing.Williams, Veronica (2003). Nuevos datos sobre la prehistoria local en la quebrada de Tolombón, Pcia. de Salta, Argentina - Anales Nueva Época, 6 This allows for an estimate of the large territory that was under the control of the political, administrative and ceremonial center of El Shincal.
The tribes of northwestern Argentina were shaken by the Inca penetration since 1470 during the reign of Topa Inca Yupanqui the tenth Inca monarch ruler of Cusco, they became part of the Inca empire either through military conquest or voluntary vassalage. Data is lacking to provide a definitive answer. The Inca chronicler Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, in his Comentarios Reales de los Incas recounts that ambassadors from the kingdom of Tucma (Tucuman) in Collasuyu arrived in Cuzco to beg the emperor to receive them as vassals.Garcilaso de la Vega, El Inca (1976 ). Los Comentarios Reales de los Incas. Edition Aurelia Miró Quesada - Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho,. Editorial: Biblioteca Ayacucho Contrary to this Raffino states that Topa Inca Yupanqui, was the conqueror of northern Argentina.
An Inca Provincial Capital The location of El Shincal de Quimivil may have been related to the exploitation of mining and agricultural resources within the Inca tributary system of redistribution and reciprocity,González, Alberto Rex (1980). Patrones de asentamiento incaico en una provincia marginal del imperio; implicancias socio-culturales - Relaciones de la Sociedad Argentina de Antropología, XIV (NS) Raffino, Rodolfo (1983) Los Inkas del Kollasuyu - Ramos Americana but also in terms of a symbolic conquest through ceremonial hospitality reflected in the transmission and imposition of various elements of the landscape and material culture. Nielsen, A. E.; Walker, W (1999) Conquista ritual y dominación política en el Tawantinsuyu: el caso de Los Amarillos (Jujuy, Argentina) in Sed Non Satiata. Teoría Social en la Arqueología Latinoamericana Contemporánea – Andreas Zarankin & Felix Acuto editors – Colección Científica, Ediciones del Tridente, Buenos Aires The site gained importance after the Inca invasion, probably because El Shincal lays at a crossroads of the (Inca road) between the (present-day) Tucumán province (Argentine) and northern Chile, via the San Francisco Pass.D´Altroy, Terence. et Al.{ (2000). Inka Rule in the Northern Calchaqui Valley, Argentina – Journal of Field Archaeology, 27(1)Bray. Tamara L. (2003). Inka Pottery as Culinary Equipment: Food, Feasting, and Gender in Imperial State Design - Latin American Antiquity, 14(1)
Description of the site
El Shincal is located at an altitude of and covers an area of about , of which are occupied by the "civic" center. The Inca settlement was conceived, planned, and built following a settlement foundation policy established by Topa Inca Yupanqui after 1471. The urban layout is orthogonal or grid-like, centered around a planning focus that is usually the (also spelled hawkaypata) or square of the rest and happiness"Diccionario quechua - español - quechua" Gobierno Regional Cusco - Cusco – Second edition, 2005with an ushnu, a quadrangular ceremonial platform, at its center. This is a homogeneous model found in most of the capitals of huamani and in the large regional administrative centers such as Huánuco Pampa some to the North.
Surrounding the plaza are five kallankas, large rectangular buildings used for political, administrative, and ceremonial activities. Several residential complexes known as kanchas are also arranged around the and along the Inca road. One of these, called the House of the Curaca, was reserved for the rulers or local elite and is located in isolation to the west of the plaza. Other buildings were exclusively for permanent inhabitants responsible for maintaining the site; some functioned as temples and others were used to accommodate guests attending festive events. All the residential buildings, the kallankas and the kanchas had thatched roof that gave the façade of the building an imposing aspect due to the gables high pitch.Gasparini, Graziano; Margolies, Luise (1977). Arquitectura inka - Centro de Investigaciones Históricas y Estéticas, Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo Universidad Central de Venezuela - Caracas
None of the more than one hundred buildings is completely extant, nevertheless all of their walls are in good state of preservation due to the vegetation cover which provided shelter.
A branching stone aqueduct about long supplied water to the settlement from the Quimivil River. It entered the plaza from the west and passed underground at the foot of the ushnu stairway. A sophisticated irrigation system is located south of the site. Some twenty storehouses (collcas) provided storage for food and other items. Other structures at the site were an architectural complex nicknamed sinchihuasi; a chief's residence; and several sets of rectangular kanchas with a central courtyard and residential enclosures arranged around the perimeter of the , intended for the general population. The excavation of one of these kanchas in the north sector revealed two periods of occupation: one classically Inca and the other indigenous colonial which may refer to the first foundation of the town of Londres by Pérez de Zurita in 1558.
The urban landscape of El Shincal is enhanced by two twin hills placed on either side of the to the east and west. They are between 20 and 25 meters high and their tops were artificially flattened, terraced, and surrounded by stone walls approximately 2 meters high. They are accessed by stone staircases. These hills were artificially transformed into platforms and were undoubtedly linked to religious activities related to the solar cult that the Inca practiced on their peaks.
According to Raffino, El Shincal, at the time of its abandonment by the Inca, was in the middle of an architectural expansion, with the construction of new buildings. In fact inside the {, according to the archaeological evidence a large kallanka was being erected, similar in dimensions to kallanka 2 (see map above) in which its openings facing the ushnu were taking shape.
The buildings, together with the surrounding landscape, formed a network of spatial markers, both geographical and cultural. This social model of the landscape, with urban regularities similar to other Inca sites in the Central Andes, led to the consideration that the builders of El Shincal wanted to symbolically replicate the capital of Tawantinsuyu, giving it the character of "New Cuzco."Raffino, Rodolfo (2007). Poblaciones indígenas en Argentina. Urbanismo y proceso social precolombino – Emecé
El Shincal stands as one of the main political, administrative, and ceremonial capitals of Northwest Argentina. This status is consolidated by the results of various investigations at the site, which demonstrate a range of ceremonial activities, elite residences, production of textiles, ceramics, food and beverages, and caravan movements, among other things. Moralejo, Reinaldo Andrés; Gobbo, Diego (2015). El Qhapaq Ñan como espacio de poder de la política incaica – Estudios Atacameños, Arqueología y Antropología Surandinas, 50
The Ushnu